Curriculum changes mean that both Primary and Secondary schools are renewing their focus on spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

For primary schools, from summer 2013 year 6 children will sit an English grammar, punctuation, and spelling test, which will assess each child’s English skills in four key areas: Grammar, Punctuation, Spelling, and Vocabulary.

In secondary schools, pupils’ GCSE grades now depend, in part, on their ability to write grammatically, use punctuation correctly, and spell accurately. This applies to grades in English Literature, History, Geography, and Religious Studies. 5% of total marks in these subjects will be for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

Our challenge to you

How well do you think you would you do in a spelling, punctuation, and grammar test? We’ve compiled a short quiz with the kinds of questions children at the end of Key Stage 2 (end of primary school) will be asked.

 

Spelling

1.       Which is the correct spelling of the following?

a) accomodate                            b) acommodate                 c) accommodate

a) apparent                                 b) aparrent                         c) apparrent

a) rhythm                                    b) ryhthm                           c) ryhthum

a) embbarass                             b) embarass                        c) embarrass

a) tomorrow                              b) tommorrow                    c) tomorow

 

2.       Find a homophone for:

fair

great

grown

hear

 

3.       Give the correct spelling of the missing word in the following sentences:

a)      You can return the item if you still have your ………………………. (reciept/receipt) .

b)      My sister’s son is my nephew and her daughter is my ………………………………… (niece/neice) .

c)       Darwin wrote about the theory of evolution in his book, The Origin of the ………………………….. (species/speceis) .

 

 

Punctuation

Put in an apostrophe where appropriate:

1. the girls dress

2. The girls laughed.

3. James hat

4. Its raining again.

5. Its tail is fluffy.

6. Its past 10p.m.

7. Cauliflowers are reduced to half price.

8. Youre joking.

 

 

Grammar                                                

1.       Identify one relative pronoun and one possessive pronoun in the following sentence:

Fido picked up his bone, which was under his nose, and trotted away to bury it.

 

2.       Is the following sentence in the active voice or the passive voice?

The greenhouse was smashed to smithereens by our football.

 

3.       Match the verbs to the correct types:

1. to walk                 auxiliary

2. am                        modal

3. will                       infinitive

 

4.       Identify the following nouns as common, proper, abstract, or collective:

1. idea

2. Prince William

3. peas

4. herd

 

5.       Find the adverbs in the following sentences:

1. She hurriedly picked up her bag, and left as fast as she could.

2. She ran often, usually taking a challenging route which included several steep hills.

3. Recklessly, they threw their homework out of the bus window on the last day of term.

 

End of test!

How did you do? Do let us know in the comments box below.

If you didn’t get full marks, you may need to grab a copy of our new Oxford Primary Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling Dictionary. It contains common tricky words targeting the top misspelt words used by primary school children, and a full colour section with grammar, punctuation and spelling terms and rules.

Our Oxford School Spelling Punctuation and Grammar Dictionary, for secondary school pupils, publishes in August.